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Postage Is Due for Companies Sending E-Mail
From: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Sun, 05 Feb 2006 10:59:58 -0500
-------- Original Message -------- Subject: Postage Is Due for Companies Sending E-Mail Date: Sun, 05 Feb 2006 04:50:52 -0400 From: Peter Morgan <petermorgan1 () gmail com> Reply-To: petermorgan1 () gmail com To: 'Dave Farber' <dave () farber net> Dear Prof Farber, Don't know if you or your readers have seen this but it seems entirely problematic: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/05/technology/05AOL.html?ei=5094&en=e20151140 e28eea1&hp=&ex=1139202000&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print Extract: "America Online and Yahoo, two of the world's largest providers of e-mail accounts, are about to start using a system that gives preferential treatment to messages from companies that pay from 1/4 of a cent to a penny each to have them delivered. The senders must promise to contact only people who have agreed to receive their messages, or risk being blocked entirely. The Internet companies say that this will help them identify legitimate mail and cut down on junk e-mail, identity-theft scams and other scourges that plague users of their services. Thy also stand to earn millions of dollars a year from the system if it is widely adopted. AOL and Yahoo will still accept e-mail from senders who have not paid, but the paid messages will be given special treatment. On AOL, for example, they will go straight to users' main mailboxes, and will not have to pass the gantlet of spam filters that could divert them to a junk-mail folder or strip them of images and Web links. As is the case now, mail arriving from addresses that users have added to their AOL address books will not be treated as spam. Yahoo and AOL say the new system is a way to restore some order to e-mail, which, because of spam and worries about online scams, has become an increasingly unreliable way for companies to reach their customers, even as online transactions are becoming a crucial part of their businesses." Peter Morgan petermorgan1 () gmail com ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as lists-ip () insecure org To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
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- Postage Is Due for Companies Sending E-Mail Dave Farber (Feb 05)